BikeArkansas

Due to family ties, it seems we have a vacation house reserved about five miles from the start of the Six Gap ride in Georgia in September. Therefore, I declared my intent to try this event. It appears to be a monster with over 11,000' of climbing with some hills getting very steep. Anyway, that is what I gathered from their website. I would like some reports on this event from those that have actually ridden this one. What is your take on this century?

jppe

I love the ride!!! You need to do it!!! Good reminder, I need to look at my schedule to see if I can work it in again this year.

Great roads.... beautiful area for riding.......lightly traveled as I recall. Very well supported. A lot of tree lined shady climbs. The climbs are probably longer than what you might be used to but none of the climbs seemed very steep except for Hogpen. As I recall Hogpen averages 10% and because it's a little later in the ride it just feels a lot steeper.

If you do it be careful on the backside of Hogpen. I know of some folks that came close to 60 mph and there was some traffic on that section. I think one car even motioned for me to go ahead and go around them.

My sensation for the day was that I was either going up or going down. It just didn't feel like there were any flat roads at all. However when I looked at the metrics after the ride I think it was a pretty even 1/3 climbing, 1/3 descending and 1/3 flattish. It takes me about the same amount of time to do Six Gap as it does the Assault on Mt Mitchell but Mitchell seems harder because so much of the climbing is packed in the last 20+ miles. Six Gap the climbing is spread out pretty well so it feels like you get a little break between the climbs.

It is probably a weather dependent ride for me. It's a great ride in good weather conditions but frankly if it were raining I just don't know if I'd ride it. I wouldn't mind the climbs but the descents might be to be too much work.

Seems like they served a nice spaghetti meal afterwards.

There are also choices of shorter versions like only 3 of the climbs as I recall.

Just don't make a mistake and turn left onto Brasstown!!! 20-22% grades!!

The number of riders is HUGE, so there will always probably be someone slower and someone faster.

There is not much around Dahlonega-but a nice mountain community....One of my memories from doing the ride was it was during one of the gas shortages a few years ago. My brother and I waited at gas station after the ride for a tanker to show up just to get enough gas to get us closer to home. We lucked into another gas station at the NC/SC state line and we were able to enough gas to get us all the way back.

BikeArkansas

Very good report. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

BluesDawg

I've done it once and though I love riding that area, that will probably do it for me. Glad I did it, though. I may do Three Gap sometime. It took me over 10 hours and that's just too long for me.
https://www.bikeforums.net/fifty-plus...l#post14809097

I agree with jppe that Hogpen is the only really difficult climb and the descent of Hogpen is not fun at all. Too many long straight sections where you worry about getting too fast for the eventual next turn or worry about overheating your rims and blowing off your tires from all the braking. Might be a good place for road discs.

BikeArkansas

I happened to meet a local man yesterday that had ridden Six Gap a few years ago. His comments were very similar. He said over 11,000 feet of climbing is difficult on any 100 mile course, period. But, he added that saddle time became an issue, as you brought up, and he said the descents were nerve racking. Actually, he said he pulled over at one point just to "cool" his brakes. He said to start the ride with clean braking surfaces and new or good condition pads.

Thanks for the reply.

jppe

Just looked at at schedules. I have a back to back 100 miler the weekend before (100-Saturday/100-Sunday).......We have Florida State in football at home on Saturday the 27th. I see where the registration rate for Six Gap stays the same until the end of August so I might just wait a bit to decide. I'm a little worried about being recovered from the ride the weekend before.